1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle seat having a large-size airbag for protecting an occupant's body in a range from the chest to the waist.
2. Description of the Related Art
JP-A 2007-45262 describes the vehicle seat having a large-size airbag for protecting an occupant's body in a range from the chest to the waist. This vehicle seat includes a seat cushion and a seat back, which have a frame member configuring a seat frame, a cushion member configuring an external appearance of the seat, and a cover member which has a bag-like shape to cover the cushion member.
The seat back has a large-size airbag and related configurations (a cleavage part, reinforced cloth and a bracket) thereof. The cleavage part is a weak part of the cover member formed at a sitting side and allows the large-size airbag to inflate. The reinforced cloth is a cloth having a size corresponding to the large-size airbag (i.e., relatively large cloth) and includes an attachment portion having a band shape (a width is narrow). The bracket is an approximately rectangular flat plate member (small) having a size corresponding to the attachment portion.
In the related art, the reinforced cloth is stitching-joined to a backside of the cover member, thereby reinforcing a part (another part of the cover member) of the cover member except the cleavage part. Then, the attachment portion of the cloth is fixed to the frame member via the bracket.
In response to shock resulting from a vehicle collision, the large-size airbag inflates from the cleavage part, thereby protecting an occupant's body in a range from the chest to the waist (relatively large part of the body). At this time, it is possible to inflate the large-size airbag from the cleavage part by regulating an inflation direction of the airbag (reinforcing a part of the cover member with the reinforced cloth) to concentrate the stress on the cleavage part.
According to the related art, it is possible to attach the reinforced cloth to the frame member while performing a covering operation of the cover member. At this time, the reinforced cloth is attached to a part of the cover member and the bracket is fixed to the attachment portion. Then, the cover member having a bag-like shape is first turned inside out and then covered to the seat back while gradually turning it inside out again. While performing the covering operation, the (small) bracket attached with the reinforced cloth is fixed to the frame member behind the seat.
In the related art, the bracket is small compared to the reinforced cloth, so that the reinforced cloth and the bracket are unbalanced. Therefore, the attachment stability of the reinforced cloth is relatively low. As a result, the inflation direction of the airbag may not be regulated.
To solve this problem, it is conceivable to make the bracket larger. However, in that case, the covering operation of the cover member would be interrupted by the large bracket having the reinforced cloth attached thereto, so that the operation of attaching the reinforced cloth is troublesome (workability is deteriorated).